Friday, April 2, 2010

100 Toy Bananas

When people ask why I wrote the book, LEGO: A Love Story, I often talk about my childhood dream of becoming a Master Model Builder or the happy memory of building the Sears Tower alongside my father. But, in truth, it was also because of the possibility of writing sentences like the following:

He is currently in the process of buying 100 toy bananas.

That quote is from The Bolton News' recent profile of Robert Clarkson -- an adult fan of LEGO bricks and member of the Brickish Association (a British community of adult fans). To start, that's not your average newspaper story. There is humor and a sense of "what the?" that pulls you in to read about why a 52-year-old man needs 100 toy bananas.

And here lies the crux of the story and why I've enjoyed this process so much. Adult fans are irreverent and geeky and funny and are also comfortable existing slightly outside the standard newspaper story. So why did I want to write the book? To ask a guy why he is buying 100 toy bananas.